Since being part of the 2014-2015 European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO) Rising Star scheme, pianist Aaron Pilsan has performed in illustrious concert venues across Europe and the U.S. as a soloist in recitals and with orchestras, as well as in chamber ensemble settings. An advocate for emerging pianists, he created the Pilsan Academy to assist with career development. In 2023, he issued a recording of solo piano works by Schumann and Jörg Widmann. Pilsan was named a BBC Music Magazine Rising Star in 2024. Pilsan was born in 1995 in Dornbirn, a small town in Austria. His family was not musical, but he began playing the piano at five, taking lessons at the Dornbirn Music School with Ivan Kárpáti and Susanne Schnetzter. He then moved to Salzburg's Mozarteum University in 2007 to study with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. He continued with Kämmerling at the Hannover University of Music in the Institute for Early Development until 2012, where he also studied with Vassilia Efstathiadou. Winning first prizes at several competitions, including the Wendl & Jung Competition in Vienna, a breakthrough came in 2011 when Germany's Fono Forum magazine named him Best Young Artist of the Year. This honor opened performance opportunities, including appearances at the Bregenz Festival, the Schloss Elmau, and Lars Vogt's Tannungen Chamber Music Festival in Heimbach. Pilsan was named a Rising Star by the European Concert Hall Organization for the 2014-2015 seasons, which allowed him to give recitals at such major venues as the Barbican in London, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Konzertaus in Vienna, among many others. That year, he began studying with Vogt at Hannover University and issued his recording debut, performing works by Beethoven and Schubert on the Naïve label. Pilsan is an active chamber music player, most notably with cellist Kian Soltani, but his collaborators also include violinist Isabelle Faust, clarinetist Sharon Kam, and the Szymanowski Quartet. He has collaborated with composers Thomas Larcher, Jörg Widmann, and Reza Vali, premiering the latter's Persian Folk Songs: Set No. 16C for cello and piano with Soltani, the work's dedicatee. That work was included on Soltani's and Pilsan's 2018 Deutsche Grammophon album Home. In the late 2010s, Pilsan founded the Pilsan Academy as a mentorship program for pianists. He graduated from Hannover University with a master's degree in 2021 and issued a recording of the first book of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, fulfilling a long-time dream. He followed that recording with a performance of both books at the "BACHathon for Ukraine" fundraising event at the Filharmonie in Szczecin, Poland. Pilsan issued a recording of solo piano works by Schumann and Widmann on the Alpha label in 2023. The following year, he was named a Rising Star by BBC Music Magazine. ~ Keith Finke, Rovi